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Leaver vs. Taker

Every man is in touch with everything else, not through his hands, but through a bunch of long fibers that shoot out in all directions from the center of his abdomen. Those fibers join a man to his surroundings; they keep his balance; they give him stability. ~ A Separate Reality

More than stability, our connection with all else has the potential to provide us with stability while existing within multiple realities with fluidity. While we can attain balance when we are connected with the universal life flow of energy moving in, through and around us at all times, it is important to remain in a state of impeccable balance with our energy by ensuring that those around us are unaffected by our actions. This, as Daniel Quinn describes, is Leaver energy – the premise of the Leaver story is ‘man belongs to the world’ – in balance with all beings and situations as they unfold.

There are a lot of people in the world who consider themselves to be balanced individuals but the overriding energy that they emanate and thrust upon others is what Quinn calls the Taker mentality – the premise of the Taker story is ‘the world belongs to man’ – to exist in balance with all beings and situations as long as it is flowing in the manner that the Taker commands. The Taker goes so far as to believe that everything within the world, including the beings within it (plants, animals, natural resources, and other humans beings), also belong to them and will demand, often indirectly, that others bend to their will at which point the Taker consumes them energetically, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. The mind of the Taker, which is strongly rooted in the ego, is one of control, compliance, and conformity. The Taker appears to be strong as they constantly take control of their world and the world around them. But this is false strength as it comes from ego and fear as it emanates from within the center of their own reality without any respect or regard for the multitudes of other realities spinning all around them.

The task of the Taker is to ensure that they mold everyone around them into how they would like to create them to be and to force them to relinquish their own dream(s) in order to fully acknowledge and maintain the reality that the Taker has created for him/herself. This is immature, selfish, unevolved, and outright predatory.

In Journey to Ixtlan don Juan said, for a warrior to be inaccessible means that he touches the world around him sparingly. And above all, he deliberately avoids exhausting himself and others. He doesn’t use and squeeze people until they have shriveled to nothing, especially the people he loves. Takers do this.

Since the Leaver wants to allow things to flow without becoming confrontational, they are prone to become the prey of the Taker and without appropriate boundaries this can lead to loss of personal power and to being energetically consumed. So what is the Leaver, who operates through their connection with the natural flow of spirit, to do? The Leaver needs to have some sort of self-preservation strategy when dealing with this unnatural predatory energy.

Access energy – we all have access to the inexhaustible well of universal life force energy – align!

Take a stand – do not let others drain you of your precious life force energy – declare your boundaries!

Stop their world – sit before them in a state of inner silence –amplify and reflect back to them their own drama as it unfolds!

Be autonomous – maintain your reality and your dream – you are your own creator!

Avoid passivity – speak your mind – do not bend to their will!

Exercise your freedom – utilize free will and if necessary, walk away – unplug from their energy completely (no explanations necessary, you have nothing to defend)!

Trust and surrender – to what Spirit has in store for you – not to what others impose upon you!

Keep dancing – around the myriad of other people’s stories – dance your truth in constant creativity and freedom!

The world of the Takers is one vast prison, and except for a handful of Leavers scattered across the world, the entire human race is now inside that prison. ~ Daniel Quinn, Ishmael

Isn’t it interesting how thought so often attempts to create the world in either/or dynamics? I watch my thoughts attempt to polarize worlds into dualities. This/that. Me/other. Leaver/taker. Good/bad. Lately I gaze into consciousness and find that any definition of myself (or no self) contains both dualities. I am a leaver/I am a taker. When both parts are seen as what I am (or what I am not) then compassion seems to grow exponentially. No longer is this world polarized one camp or another. I am both, I am all. So many of your suggestions for accessing energy, trust, stopping the world are methods which can be used when we discover ourselves in a taking mode (or perhaps a too-passive leaving mode.) Thank you SO MUCH for such good thought today! Dancing with these ideas…

For most it’s a black and white world where self-preservation becomes imminent. The illusion of separation is prevalent in today’s world and is the cause for so much dis-ease. By living only from mind the connection with Spirit is vastly diminished and as a result people lack the energy, well-being and joy that allow them to live life fully. There is so much more to life and half of the battle is liberation from those who constantly take. Keep gazing, dancing, spinning into pure conscious awareness.

Very helpful and well written post. Long before i knew of Castaneda I encountered a shop assistant who quickly drained me of bodily vitality in a way i had never experienced before. Maybe my ‘guard’ was down? I am still working at identifying when someone is taking, when i am taking, when i have forgotten to set up energetic boundaries, etc. It’ all about energy, and it seems that the skill is in managing and preserving your own energy well…

I just wrote a riff on this blog, and as I was signing it, the computer logged off for no apparent reason. Very strange. Wonder what the Goddess had in mind with that little trick. Anyway what I was trying to say was that some polarities are healthy and some not so much. For instance up and down, front and back, right and left are very helpful in orienting ourselves. But when we get into abstractions, we can foul things up with polarities such as good and bad, right and wrong, mine and yours, and so on. When I sit and ruminate, it comes to me that the same generative energy that sustains our giving also sustains our taking. Perhaps not out of indifference, but springing from a profound sense of humor, or voyeuristic delight? Seeing from within her creatures senses thoughts feelings, she supports and allows our explorations in existential discovery. When we come to this kind of transcendent appreciation, the drama moves into a new realm of appreciation. Some birds fly from point to point in the air, others soar. She needs all her birds, as she chooses, for the bliss of her being, and gifts to the bliss of ours.

“What a strange paradox! Every warrior on the path of knowledge thinks, at one time or another, that he’s learning sorcery, but all he’s doing is allowing himself to be convinced of the power hidden in his being, and that he can reach it.” CC, The Power of Silence

Becoming Awareness

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